Light the world on fire!

My work in the political arena these last few months started tugging at some pretty old threads for me and over the last few weeks I think that thread is finally fleshed out.

See, the work I've done in life has always been in a service industry setting. But, I think too often the focus is on industry and not service. Granted this makes sense in things like retail. I've been blessed to work both direct care and management positions in industries that work with people with disabilities.

Often when I talk about my past work I talk about the not so positive things I did and not the positives. Admittedly all those things still stand. However, I have tried to remember service as an ethos. In school busing I can say I kept my integrity and was always honest with my employees and customers alike. I didn't have company employees  I had "my drivers" I knew everyone by name and really miss them some days. They didn't drive packages of salt they drove "our kids" and we were acutely aware that every child that got on a vehicle was someone's most precious and wonderful baby. Granted we were also a business and we made decent money but it felt secondary most of the time.

Camp is a lot easier to highlight the service on. This is because I worked directly with the kids. It's hard not to take a service perspective playing with kids, doing art projects, teaching a kid to swim. Again, these were "our kids". A group of 16 to 20 year olds were handed someone's special baby and they knew that the care their child got was the absolute best. Money doesn't buy that kind of care, we loved those kids, we loved our jobs. Sure, there were regulations to deal with, cleaning to do, and all those sorts of things. But the core of it all was the kids. That kind of work forged friendships and experiences that can't be beat.

But political work expands this idea of service. I wasn't just serving the campaign or a wonderful candidate, we were serving the community. It wasn't just about winning, it was about sending someone to office that would raise up everyone in the community, especially those most at risk. I was blessed to enter politics not via a drive to win or make money but to make a difference. I worked for a campaign that felt more like family, with a candidate that felt closer to a friend than a boss. We bled for our win, most of us working deathly ill through GOTV. And as we held our breath looking at a loss before the early vote numbers turned it into a win, we knew no matter the outcome "we left it all on the field". Let's be fair, we got paid too and no one works for a candidate they agree with 100% of the time (unless you are the candidate and then my hat's off to you).

So that's the connection, service. I've listened to a lot more by Cornel West lately and maybe that's what has me thinking this way too. The truth is being successful isn't enough. Raising myself above where I am or was isn't enough. I think this is why the nice car, good money, etc wasn't enough for me. I want to raise more than myself. That's how the world gets better. If we raise not just ourselves but those around us. If we raise our friends and family we may just raise a community. Raising a community could expand to a city, a township, a county, a state, a country, maybe even the whole world. I don't just want to do well, I want to look around at a world of people doing well. That's it, that's really lighting the world on fire. The flame of hope passed from one person to another has the power to push back all the darkness. So pass that flame to your neighbor and let's set this world aflame.